Lincoln City Man of the Match v West Ham United: Ivan Varfolomeev

I know we’re a bit late with this, mainly due to me being poorly, but Ivan Varfolomeev has been voted your Lincoln City man of the match against West Ham United.

The Ukrainian international earned an average rating of 7.49: on a night when we were beaten 6-0, the midfielder’s efforts clearly registered with those assessing the individual performances.

Of course, everything about Wednesday needs to be viewed through the dismissals. We were down to ten men after three minutes and nine after 23, leaving those still on the field facing an enormous task against a side with the quality to exploit the extra space. Picking a man of the match in those circumstances is about recognising the contribution someone managed to make during a game that had become desperately difficult.

Ivan Varfolomeev v West Ham United in numbers

Ivan played 75 minutes, recording five interceptions and seven recoveries. Those interceptions were hugely important because with two players missing, stepping into a passing lane offered us a way of disrupting West Ham without having to win a direct physical contest. There was always going to be more ground to cover and less support available once they moved the ball beyond us.

Four of his seven recoveries came in the opposition half, which is perhaps the most encouraging detail in his numbers. Even in those circumstances, he was able to regain possession further up the field, giving us opportunities to do something away from our own penalty area. We spent so much of the evening trying to contain West Ham that any chance to interrupt their possession and move up the pitch had value.

His duel figures were more mixed, with six successes from 13 contests overall, a win rate of 46%. That included three wins from eight defensive duels, while he won his only aerial duel and one of three loose-ball duels. There were limits to how much he could do, and those numbers sit alongside the interceptions and recoveries when assessing his evening.

He also made one clearance and committed one foul, with eight possession losses recorded across his appearance. Only two of those losses came in our own half, a useful distinction when considering where we were surrendering the ball. Losing it further forward at least gave us more distance between the turnover and our goal, even if recovering our shape with nine men remained a considerable challenge.

Ivan completed ten of his 14 passes, giving him a completion rate of 71%. It was a small amount of possession across 75 minutes, which illustrates how restricted his opportunities were to influence the game with the ball. With fewer teammates available to offer options, any assessment of his passing has to account for the circumstances in which he was operating.

The readers’ verdict recognises a player who continued to contribute during an exceptionally demanding evening. Ivan’s interceptions, recoveries and willingness to contest possession gave us reasons to acknowledge his performance, even with the scoreline making this an uncomfortable award to write about.

His 7.49 rating puts him at the head of the vote, with Deji’s 7.28 also deserving recognition after such a difficult night for our defence. I am surprised Daniel Oyegoke finished below seven, as personally, I thought he was a monster.